With little explanation, Marines relieve commander

Move follows 1st Marine unit role in Al Kut

April 05, 2003|By Thomas E. Ricks, The Washington Post.

The Marine Corps on Friday relieved one of its top commanders in Iraq, an extremely unusual action, especially for a unit engaged in combat.

Col. Joe W. Dowdy was the officer in charge of the 1st Marine Regiment, one of the three major Marine ground units fighting toward Baghdad. His regiment is reported to have been used to pin down Republican Guard units in the city of Al Kut while the other two units, the 5th and 7th Marines, crossed the Tigris River on Thursday and raced toward Baghdad.

Those units encountered heavy ground fighting Friday on the outskirts of the capital and had at least three tanks disabled by Iraqi fire.

The U.S. Central Command announced the action but offered no explanation. Pentagon spokesmen referred questions to the Marine Corps, which had no comment.

"We can confirm that he has been relieved," said Marine Maj. Brad Bartelt, a Central Command spokesman. "I have no other information at this time."

At Al Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, the 1st Marine Regiment's mission included feinting a move toward Iraqi positions to draw artillery fire and expose the Iraqi gun batteries, which then could be hit by air strikes, according to a Marine officer. The Iraqi units did not take the bait, the officer said.

Dowdy's immediate superior, Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, has the reputation of being an extremely aggressive commander, regarded as a plus in the corps.

Allan Millett, a military historian at Ohio State University and a retired colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, said that "relieving a regimental commander for cause is unusual, in combat or not."

The move is especially significant because the three Marine regiments in Iraq have been operating not in one formation but as three geographically separate "regimental combat teams."

At the war's outset, the three units--the 1st, 5th and 7th Marines, totaling about 20,000 fighters--drove from Kuwait to seize the Rumailah oil field, about 20 miles west of Basra.

Then they pushed 75 miles north to Nasiriyah, skirmishing with Iraqi irregular fighters, and crossed the Euphrates River around March 24. They moved into central Iraq, pausing as supplies ran short and a huge sandstorm howled.

Earlier this week, the Marine units drove toward Al Kut, where Dowdy's 1st Marine Regiment was ordered to pin down the Baghdad division of the Republican Guard.

Dowdy took command last summer of the 1st Marine Regiment, which is based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. With other units attached to the regiment for combat, he had command of about 6,000 Marines, according to GlobalSecurity.org.

Before his current assignment he was the assistant chief of staff and chief planner for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, the umbrella unit for the Marines in Iraq.

Dowdy's removal puzzled veterans of the corps, which, with just about 16,000 officers, is small enough that many senior Marines know each other.

"Jim Mattis was one of my battalion commanders during the first gulf war," said Marine Gen. Carlton Fulford. "I have great confidence in his judgment. I know of Joe Dowdy by reputation, but not personally. He has a fine reputation."

The key to the situation, some suggested, is likely Mattis' views of how forcefully a unit should act in combat.

"Jim Mattis is a very aggressive commander -- we wouldn't want it any other way," said retired Marine Lt. Gen. Jack Klimp.

In any case, Fulford said, removing a commander in combat is a move that isn't taken lightly. During the gulf war, when he commanded the 7th Marines, and when Mattis commanded one of his battalions, he decided to remove another battalion commander.

"It was one of the most difficult decisions I ever made as a commander," he recalled. But, he added, "In the final analysis, I believed the commander was not prepared to lead his men into combat, and that was the most important issue."